Chery in shipyard venture to build its own car carriers

WEIHAI: Chinese automotive manufacturer Chery is going to develop car carrier construction base in Weihai, Shandong province, to meet its growing automobile transportation demands.

Chery will partner with Wuhu Shipyard to develop a car carrier construction base in Weihai and build its own fleet to support the fast-expanding export business. 

Chery Wuhu Weihai marine and offshore engineering technology industry base will utilise the old facilities of Weihai Samjin Shipbuilding, which filed for bankruptcy in 2014, restructured in 2016 and then returned to shipbuilding market

Chery and Wuhu Shipyard are now accelerating construction of the new production base, which is planned to build batches of 6,000 ceu car carriers for Chery upon delivery. 

Chinese automobile manufacturer’s competitiveness kept increasing in 2022. The vehicle export volume increased 56.9% year-on-year and the export value made a substantial growth of 74.8%. Several new orders in PCTC market had been placed by Chinese industry players in recent months.

The car carrier market has been experiencing what Clarkson’s described in December 2022 as “expectional conditions” with charter rates of $105,000 per day. As result of the strong conditions the newbuild orderbook is currently at a 10-year high of around 16% market capacity,

In January 2023, the other Chinese car maker BYD ordered two dual-fuel 7,000 ceu car carriers from Guangzhou Shipyard International, which is the first order BYD placed as the shipper to secure its new energy automobile export supply. At the end of 2022, Cosco Shipping Car Carrier ordered six 7,500 ceu LNG-fuelled car carriers from Fujian Shipbuilding.